Month: November 2023

Taylor Swift’s latest re-recorded album, 1989 (Taylor’s Version), has shown off the singer’s dominance. The album is on track to secure the top spot on Billboard’s Hot 100 chart. This has led fans to travel down the rabbit hole of Swift’s past charting performance.

On Monday, October 23, the platform revealed Swift earned her tenth No. 1 single, which tied her with icons Stevie Wonder and Janet Jackson. So, which of Swift’s catchy tunes has topped the charts? Here are Swift’s hit songs that have gone to No. 1.

According to the chart data, Swift’s longest-running No. 1 is 2022’s “Anti-Hero,” which remained in the slot for eight weeks. For seven weeks, 2014’s “Blank Space” held the coveted spot, whereas her single from the same year, “Shake It Off,” charted at No .1 for four weeks.

Her 2012 song “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” and 2017 single “Look What You Made Me Do” held the No. 1 spot for three weeks. In a shocking turn of events, Swift’s 2019 song “Cruel Summer” secured the No. 1 spot for two weeks this year. Swift’s remaining No. 1 hits include 2014’s “Bad Blood” featuring Kendrick Lamar, 2020’s “Willow” and “Cardigan,” and “All Too Well (Taylor’s Verison),” all of which charted atop the charts for one week.

Last month, Swift and her frequent collaborator Jack Antonoff rushed to social media after learning their 2019 song “Cruel Summer” hit No. 1. “A song from five f*cking years age… yeah,” yelled Antonoff. “Our favorite song from ‘Lover.’ The song that we said was the best song, but we said, ‘This was our secret best song.’ That’s what we thought.”

Swift added, “We just wanted to say thank you so much for making ‘Cruel Summer’ a Hot 100 No. 1. and it’s not even the summer anymore.”

“It really means the world,” said Antonoff.

“We love you guys,” shouted Swift.

IT’S COOL 😎 pic.twitter.com/KcmNvBRR4Y

— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) October 23, 2023

The main branch of the Yellowstone-verse — which is to say the show Yellowstone — is in a bit of a mess right now. First Kevin Costner is wiggling his way out of the Western smash hit, then one strike began, then another. The SAG-AFTRA one is still ongoing, which means (among many other things) that it’s unclear when they’ll get back to filming the rest of the final season. Still, the franchise is chooglin’ along, popping out one spinoff after another.

Last week they announced two more: 2024 and 1944. Not much is known about either, except that 2024 is expected to air after Yellowstone concludes. It’s been said that it will sport new characters, even though it will presumably be shot on the same enormous ranch known as 6666 (which is getting its own spinoff). That shouldn’t be difficult given it’s the size of two Chicagos, leaving room for plenty of other Duttons or Dutton-adjacents. It’s also been speculated that that’s the one that will star Matthew McConaughey.

But what of 1944, the show set 80 years prior? Let’s dig in.

Plot

There’s not been much official word about 1944’s story, at least from Yellowstone honcho Taylor Sheridan or Paramount. But per the Montana rag Ravelli Republic (as caught by TV Guide), it will allegedly be a follow-up to 1923 (that’s the one with Harrison Ford and Dame Helen Mirren). Will it be about another branch of the Dutton family? About Ford and Mirren’s character’s successors? All that is under wraps.

One thing that’s safe to assume is, given the titular date, it will probably concern, to some extent, the final days of the Second World War. It was a time when much of the male population was overseas, fighting a two-pronged conflict. Women had to step and do some of the jobs men once did. Perhaps (and this is wild speculation, so take this with a quarry of salt) it will follow women running the ranch as their men are abroad fighting Germany and Japan. Or maybe World War II will simply be in the background, as there were still other things happening in the American Midwest in 1944.

Release Date

That, too, is not yet known, or maybe not yet even decided. Given that the final bout of Yellowstone itself is scheduled for November 2024, it’s safe to assume it will either air not long after that or early 2025.

Cast

No cast members have been announced, and though it’s been assumed that the aforementioned McConaughey will head up 2024, he could very well pop up in the one set eight decades before.

1944 was only announced on November 2, so it’s very, very early days here. Watch this space for more on a franchise that could wind up popular the way Marvel once was but isn’t so much anymore.

Marvel Entertainment is in a bit of pickle right now. After a decade-plus of ruling the multiplex (and, in recent years, the streaming-verse, too), they’re not as bulletproof as they once were. Some movies underperform. Some shows go underwatched. A recent, brutal Variety piece highlighted all the ways in which they’re a mess, with low (for them) box office projections for The Marvels, some mishegoss over their Blade reboot, even desperate talks about getting the old Avengers gang back together. They’re also thinking of finally addressing one of the bigger complaints about the MCU.

Per Deadline, during a preview of Echo, their Hawkeye spinoff featuring Maya Lopez’s Native American deaf assassin, a Marvel exec quietly slipped in some big news. The show, he said, would be part of a new wing called Marvel Spotlight. These would be movies and shows that, while they may have a connection to the MCU, don’t require everyone has to watch — or at least read up on — all the stuff that’s happened in all the other movies and shows.

“Just like comics fans didn’t need to read Avengers or Fantastic Four to enjoy a Ghost Rider Spotlight comic,” Head of Streaming Brad Winderbaum told the crowd, “our audience doesn’t need to have seen other Marvel series to understand what’s happening in Maya’s story.”

It will also allow Marvel to bring what Winderbaum described as “more grounded, character-driven stories to the screen,” saying that Echo would focus on “street-level stakes over larger MCU continuity.” Indeed Echo scored a Marvel show first: a “TV-MA” rating.

Of course, Echo is still connected to the greater MCU. As mentioned, it’s a spinoff, following a character introduced in Hawkeye. However, it sounds like one doesn’t need to have seen any other MCU title — including, maybe, Hawkeye — to make sense of Echo.

Till now, each MCU movie and show were interconnected. To fully grok, say, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, one had to see (or, again, read up on): Agent Carter, What If…?, WandaVision, Spider-Man: No Way Home, to say nothing of the first Doctor Strange and the previous two Avengers outings. That’s a lot of watching!

Perhaps Marvel execs finally realized that not everyone has time or energy or the inkling to watch hours upon hours of Marvel stuff just to understand one of them. And maybe this will be one way to combat that famous superhero fatigue that seems to be settling in.

You can watch the Echo trailer above. The show starts dropping on Disney+ and Hulu on January 10.

(Via Deadline)

For the fourth time this season, NFL fans woke up to football as the league continues to expand their overseas games in Europe with a massive tilt between AFC contenders in Frankfurt on Sunday morning.

The Kansas City Chiefs were the nominal home team in Frankfurt, playing “host” to the Miami Dolphins in a battle of 6-2 teams that could very well be a preview of an AFC title game next January. What was billed as a matchup of two explosive offenses became a defensive struggle after the Chiefs scored on the opening possession of the game, with a lot of punts between the two sides for most of the first half. Kansas City finally got things going again on their final offensive drive of the half, marching down the field for a second TD and taking a ton of time off of the clock in the process.

The Dolphins then tried to get their offense kickstarted in the two-minute drill and looked to be doing just that as they moved into Chiefs territory quickly with a couple big plays to Jaylen Waddle and Tyreek Hill, but just as things started to look up, disaster struck. On a screen pass to Hill, Trent McDuffie hit him immediately, stripped him of the ball so Mike Edwards could scoop it up, and then once Hill wrapped up Edwards, he pitched it back to Bryan Cook who ran it all the way down the sidelines for a wild touchdown.

The booth quickly reviewed the play and determined it was in fact a catch and fumble, as Hill had possession long enough while getting backed up before fumbling to count as a catch. It was a huge swing in the game, as the Dolphins certainly looked like they were going to at least get themselves on the board in some way, only to see the Chiefs tack on a third score before the half to take a 21-0 lead into the break.

Around this time last year, Donald Trump wasn’t doing too hot. Him dining with anti-Semites, getting blamed for weak midterms, scoring his first criminal charges, and dropping much-mocked NFTs — this all had people thinking he was finally, at long last done. (Sigh.) What a difference a year makes. He’s back on top, even eclipsing Joe Biden in some polls. But that doesn’t mean he’s invincible.

Per Newsweek, while appearing at the Florida Republican Party’s Freedom Summit in Kissimmee on Saturday, the former president praised Republican governors’ handling of the pandemic, some of whom defied CDC recommendations to keep the states closed until conditions improved. Trump listed some of the states that stayed open, but clearly skipped over perhaps the biggest one: Florida, whose governor, Ron DeSantis, whose popularity among the GOP soared over his stubborn behavior. The crowd didn’t like that.

As it became clear that Trump was going to snub the guy running a distant second to him in the primary polls, people in the crowd started chanting, “Florida!” Trump noticed the backlash, smirked, chuckled, then gave them some kind of red meat.

“I will say this,” he told the crowd. “Every Republican governor did much better than the best Democrat governor. It’s true.”

But despite Trump’s spin, some pointed out that the big guy seemed genuinely scared by the reaction he’d received.

He still wouldn’t mention Florida, nor its Meatball governor.

Trump did talk DeSantis elsewhere during his speech. He elicited laughs as he did an unflattering impersonation of him, saying, “’’I need your endorsement, sir. I need your endorsement please. I need your frickin’ endorsement, please.’ So I gave him the endorsement.”

In other words, Trump knew he was better off sticking to the Greatest Hits.

(Via Newsweek)

Every single week, our TV and film experts will list the most important ten streaming selections for you to pop into your queues. We’re not strictly operating upon reviews or accrued streaming clicks (although yes, we’ve scoured the streaming site charts) but, instead, upon those selections that are really worth noticing amid the churning sea of content. There’s a lot out there, after all, and your time is valuable.

TIE: 10. Bodies (Netflix series)

There’s nothing quite like a sleeper series for the element of surprise. This twisty, turn show dives headfirst into a mind-melting take on multiple detectives who try to solve (and stop) the same murder in different decades. This show was only intended to be a limited series and is based upon a Si Spencer graphic novel, but given the audience turnout — and how the show actually leaves the door slightly ajar — it wouldn’t be a total shock if Netflix put another round into motion. In the meantime, enjoy this clear story that will keep you guessing, even after you find out the identity of the killer.

TIE: 10. Long Shot (Lionsgate movie streaming on Netflix)

Seth Rogen took a little downtime from his endless array of chillin’-out pastimes/businesses (a weed empire, his pottery wheel) to star alongside an underappreciated movie with Charlize Theron, but a whole new audience has now caught wind. Here, she’s the Secretary of State, and he’s a journalist who just crossed paths with his old babysitter. As well, never forget that, even though Theron is an Oscar winner and one of the greatest action stars of this era (of any gender), she can still be funny as hell when as the project suits.

9. The Fall Of The House Of Usher (Netflix series)

Mike Flanagan is back. Granted, he never left, but he did slightly divert with The Midnight Club and has returned to his Carla Gugino-wielding, horror-master roots. Speaking of which, who is Verna, anyway? This show is so brazenly up in the Edgar Allan Poe references with so many macabre happenings that we put together a death ranking. Also, this isn’t a literal telling of the Poe story but one that successfully incorporates modern ills while skewering the concepts of wealth, privilege, and power.

8. Scavengers Reign (Max series)

This animated series follows pockets of survivors (including not only humans but a robot) who somehow ended up on an alien planet following the destruction of their interstellar freighter ship. They find both gloriously beautiful flora and fauna but plentiful danger, too. Each group takes a different strategy, and what surfaces is a meditation of sorts about humanity’s effect on a previously flourishing and relatively untouched planet. The series stars Wunmi Mosaku, Alia Shawkat, Bob Stephenson, and Sunita Mani.

7. Old Dads (Netflix movie)

Bill Burr plays it safer than usual here, but this film still manages to be mildly offensive while pulling punches. Yes, audiences have been divided after watching, but that’s also good for viewing numbers. Bokeem Woodbine and Bobby Cannavale are other doofus dads, and you might as well accept that someone at your family holiday celebrations will want to watch this after dinner. Maybe twice.

6. Saw X (Lionsgate movie streaming on VOD and Amazon Prime)

The most critically-acclaimed Jigsaw movie in the franchise went toe-to-toe with Taylor Swift and lived to tell the tale. The same cannot be said for those who land in these telltale traps, however. This film takes a lengthy voyage back to the earlier days of this horror franchise where Tobin Bell gets to show off his range for days. This is quite unlike any other Saw movie but also doesn’t totally skimp on the requisite gore quotient that fans are used to seeing.

5. Gen V (Amazon Prime series)

The season finale (to quote Bill Murray in Ghostbusters) came, saw, and kicked ass with a short but highly impactful cameo from the original series to top things off. Fortunately, we will receive a Season 2 about the hierarchy of Godolkin University, and the promises made by the creatives of this spinoff weren’t messing around. This debut season provided an ideal jumping-off point for The Boys Season 4. We sure wouldn’t mind hearing about a release date soon. [Cough]

4. No Hard Feelings (Sony Pictures movie streaming on Netflix)

Jennifer Lawrence has done the fancy Oscar and hefty blockbuster thing into infinity already, and thank goodness that she wanted to do something different here: be raunchy as hell and bring back R-rated comedies with a vengeance. She portrays Maddie, a total fail-hard young woman who needs to make some money, fast, so she answers a Craigslist ad from parents who would really like a nice woman to “date” (i.e., boink) their awkward 19-year-old son. This is a firmly R-rated movie that also has heart, and Lawrence enthusiastically participated on both fronts.

3. Pain Hustlers (Netflix movie)

A whole lot of “taking on Big Pharma” TV shows and movies have landed on streaming in recent years, but this one has Emily Blunt and Chris Evans. Oh, and Andy Garcia portrays an eccentric boss, but it’s a wild sight to see Blunt and Evans rise to the top of a racketeering scheme that’s also partially responsible for one of the greater ills — the scourge of opioid-based painkillers — in contemporary society. This is a dramatized version of the rise and fall of Insys Therapeutics, and you will definitely find out why that company ceased to exist.

2. Invincible (Amazon series)

Hoo boy. I did not expect the second season to begin with Mark Grayson (Steven Yeun) on that side of things, but hey, his dad is Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons), so do not expect everything to be so straightforward with these superheroes. Speaking of which, Amazon is absolutely crushing these comic-book adaptations better than the major film studios who previously dominated the scene. This season, Sandra Oh gets an even bigger spotlight for her talents, and the sheer presence of Walton Goggins is always a joy to behold, even when you cannot see him.

1. Five Nights At Freddy’s (Blumhouse film streaming on Peacock)

This film simultaneously scared up box-office and streaming success on the same weekend. The timing was perfect, given that this film not only fit the spooky time of year but also blossomed as yet another successful video-game-to-screen adaptation. Josh Hutcherson did not have the quiet little evening at work that his character imagined, since this no ordinary pizzeria. Animatronic horror villains are no less scary than horrific and homicidal dolls like M3GAN and those sporting ski masks and chainsaws, as it turns out. And now, the wait for the green lighting of a sequel shall begin.

There’s a line between trolling and flat-out bashing. Unfortunately, “Chasing Time” rapper Azealia Banks either doesn’t know the difference or doesn’t care. Banks doesn’t subscribe to the motto: if you don’t have anything nice to say, keep it to yourself. In her online ramblings, she’s taken aim at several musicians, including Joe Budden, Nicki Minaj, Cardi B, Doja Cat, Iggy Azalea, Lana Del Rey, and more.

But today (November 4), she’s looking to clear the slate with one musician. In a series of posts on her official Instagram page, Banks issued an apology to Lizzo for her past remarks about her physique. “I was having a conversation last night and realized that I owe Lizzo a huge apology for popping so much sh*t,” wrote Banks.

That was where the brunt of Banks’ kindness ended. On the following note, she turned her attention to her former “Taste State” collaborator Busta Rhymes, where she made several inflammatory allegations.

“If hip-hop will a 55+ several overweight Busta Rhymes, who exhibits major signs of anabolic steroid abuse, adrenal gland failure, and constipation, and will also allow him to have a face full of blackheads and acne from what appears to be testosterone shot abuse… All whilst drinking molly water in 2023 and wearing cartoon-like neon yellow fake gold Slick Rick chains… We have absolutely no right to be trying to skewer a young Black woman for anything,” wrote Banks.

In the past, Banks’ highly offensive remarks have gotten her social media accounts suspended. This defamatory rant could garner the same result.

Neither Lizzo nor Busta Rhymes have responded to Azealia Banks’ comments.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Marjorie Taylor Greene used to save her ire for Democrats, but lately she’s found a new enemy: fellow Republicans. The MAGA lawmaker turned on Lauren Boebert a while ago. Now she’s steamed at all the House Republicans who voted against censuring Democrat Rashida Tlaib — so steamed that her tweet slamming them backfired spectacularly.

In a tweet that should have probably been a bit more clear, Greene accused someone — House Republicans, no doubt — of being “feckless.” Her post read, simply, “In case anyone doesn’t know what feckless means,” with a screengrab of her Googling the term’s definition, namely, “lacking initiative or strength of character.” Included in the image were two synonyms: “useless” and “worthless.”

Alas, in part because she didn’t identify who she was accusing of being feckless, it made it easier for others to accuse her of being useless and worthless.

Others used the occasion to offer her other dictionary terms one could say applies to her.

Greene had introduced a resolution censuring Tlaib over her comments saying that by backing Israel’s war on Gaza he was “supporting the genocide of the Palestinian people.” By doing so, Greene claimed, Tlaib was engaging in “antisemitic activity,” despite her own history of trivializing the Holocaust, to say nothing of “Jewish space lasers.” Unfortunately for Greene, 23 Republicans sided with Democrats to shelve the resolution. On Saturday Greene pledged to reintroduce the measure.

(Via HuffPost)

For every big moment Roman Reigns has faced over the last couple of years, he’s been unstoppable. He’s put a halt to Drew McIntyre‘s homecoming, the same with Sami Zayn, left Cody Rhodes‘ story unfinished, and took out his cousin, Jey Uso, again.

Saturday from Mohammed Abdu Arena in Riyadh at WWE Crown Jewel, Reigns did the same to LA Knight’s meteoric rise, with a pinfall victory to retain his Undisputed WWE Universal Championship.

After beating Knight around the ring, Reigns laid out the challenger with a Superman Punch and followed it up with a spear attempt. Knight leapfrogged the champ, who went flying into the turnbuckle. Knight then hit his signature L-A-Knight elbow drop as Solo Sikoa caused a distraction on the entrance ramp and Jimmy Uso pulled Reigns out of the ring.

Knight grabbed Uso by the hair and Reigns hit him with a Superman Punch, then landed a spear back inside the ring for two.

Reigns had Knight in a standing guillotine, but hung the champ up on the ropes. He then his BFT on Reigns when Uso put his foot on the rope to break up the three-count.

Knight followed Uso to the outside and put him through a table. Reigns then hit a spear through the barricade.

Back in the ring, Reigns hit Knight with a spear to put him away for the night.

Whether this leads to a tilt with The Rock to put a cap on his Bloodline storyline at WrestleMania 40 in Philadelphia remains to be seen. Regardless, it appears Reigns is on course for another WrestleMania title defense.

On July 21, during The 1975‘s set at The Good Vibes Music Festival in Kuala Lumpur, frontman Matty Healy and bassist Ross MacDonald shared an onstage kiss. The display of affection was, in Healy’s words, to protest Malaysia’s anti-LGBTQ laws. Ultimately, the group reportedly was forced to pay a fine after the members served a short stint in a local jail cell.

Now, according to Channel News Asia, the country’s parliament has instituted a “kill switch” rule for foreign bands’ future live shows to ensure it never happens again. The outlet reported that Deputy Communications and Digital Minister Teo Nie Ching announced the stipulation for event organizers.

“These are the guidelines from the incident (involving The 1975), and we hope that with stricter guidelines, we can ensure that performances by foreign artists can adhere to the culture in Malaysia,” said Ching.

After returning to the US in August, Heally addressed the incident during a concert. “All I’ll say is that I don’t give a f*ck about any white savior complex bullsh*t,” he said. “What I’ll say is that doing the right thing often requires quite a lot of sacrifice and very little reward. And being seen to do the right thing requires very little sacrifice, and that’s when you get all the rewards. And me and Ross [MacDonald] nearly shaved our heads because we thought we were going to prison for being f**s.”